Language overcomes limits

March 22, 2012

Language overcomes limits

Baylor French student earns second title in national video contest

Houston senior Adrien Lavergne, who is studying French with minors in music and film and digital media, was recently named one of six winners in the national Vista Higher Learning Video Contest. This is Lavergne's second year to win the foreign language contest, which education publisher Vista Higher Learning designed as an instructional tool for college students.

Nearly 200 students entered one-minute videos to the 2011 Video Contest, which was themed "Languages: My Future." Lavergne entered a video he scripted featuring himself and a friend sitting on a bench outside the Carroll Science Building on Baylor's campus. Lavergne's friend briefly explains the benefits of learning a foreign language, stating, "Everything that you hear is limited by what you understand." The video closes with the claim, "Everything that you understand and learn profoundly affects your future."

"This year's theme was the future and how foreign language affects your future, and I started thinking about Le Monde, a big French newspaper," Lavergne said. "I'll read it from time to time, and they'll have articles about technology and other things. I always thought it was cool that there are articles and ideas from people who don't speak English, written in French, that you just don't get any other way."

Lavergne scripted the video and wrote original music to accompany the piece. Previously, he and then-senior Daniella Romero, who was studying international studies, won the 2010 contest with videos demonstrating the importance of learning a foreign language.

"Romero, who won last year and the year before last, and I both sat in the same row in class," Lavergne said. "It was funny because it was a national competition, and two students from Texas, who were also from Baylor, who were also in the same class, who also sat in the same row, won."

Dr. Heidi Bostic, professor and chair of the modern foreign languages department at Baylor, said Lavergne's win also affects the prestige of the department.

"Producing a prize-winning video is a rare accomplishment for any student," Bostic said. "An award like this will help to draw attention to majors in languages at Baylor. More generally, the video successfully urges all students to study other languages in order to be better informed about world events."